Yahoo News Londoner's Diary: Soho Estates boss John James says he's not a villain
It's John James versus, well, everybody else. The managing director of Soho Estates and father of India Rose and Fawn James has long been a key figure in the development of the bustling West End area. Now he’s working through a list of high-profile opponents to the mission.
James, speaking at the “bottoming out” ceremony of the new Edwardian Hotel in Leicester Square, complained about Stephen Fry and Rupert Everett, who have protested about the gentrification of Soho.
“According to them we [Soho Estates] are the villains of Soho,” he said. “It’s not the case. We have resisted any chains so far — we are the ones who are saving Soho.”
So is Stephen Fry, the chairman of the Save Soho campaign, wrong? “I explained all this to him and he said I was genuine and a hero,” James explained. What about the closure of Madame JoJo’s? “If [people] read the documents correctly they’d [see we’d just] closed for redevelopment for two-and-a-half years,” James said. “Rupert Everett was on the street saying I’m saving Jo Jo’s.” James suggested his interest was motivated by his making a documentary on prostitutes in Soho at the time.
City Hall had been previously unsupportive of Soho Estates’ plans to regenerate Foyles bookstore, says James. “Boris Johnson [when Mayor] just said ‘no’ and waltzed out the door. His views are capricious, ill-informed and under-researched,” he said. “How the hell he got to be Foreign Minister [sic] is beyond me. He looks like a buffoon, he talks like a buffoon, but he can’t have been a buffoon to get where he is today.” But Communities Secretary Sajid Javid gets James’s seal of approval. “I like him,” he said. “He gave me my planning permission for Foyles. Sajid takes the same view as us.”
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Tom Stoppard’s Travesties is back on stage. But a friend recalls attending a dinner where Stoppard was the guest speaker, in which he recalled an invitation to Paris to see the first French production. The director, to Stoppard’s annoyance, had insisted that there be two intervals. Stoppard soon discovered why. Sitting down for act three, he watched as the curtains rose to reveal Cecily, the librarian, up a ladder, topless. That’ll wake up those in the back.
Beard doles out a grain of truth to Carswell
Classicist Mary Beard is single-handedly educating Ukip in the post-expert era. Lone Ukip MP Douglas Carswell claimed on Andrew Marr’s BBC show that a universal basic income had been tried in the Roman era and “was a disaster”. Carswell said Gaius Gracchus’s grain dole led to Rome “parasiting off the provinces”. Beard was on his case. “Fear Roman basic income point isn’t quite right,” she tweeted. “After few ups & downs became successful Roman principle for centuries.” Ukip donor Arron Banks, no fan of Carswell, defended Beard. Banks once had a tiff with Beard about him saying immigration caused Rome’s fall, which they settled over lunch. Beard tweeted: “Oh dear Arron, I fear Mr Carswell needs a Roman history lesson. I bet he’s angling for lunch!”
Vogue is the buzzword at Old Billingsgate
A busy weekend at London Fashion Week, and the question on every rouged lip in town remains: who will be the new editor of Vogue? The Londoner was at the Mulberry show at Old Billingsgate Market yesterday with, among others, actress Anna Taylor-Joy and Tatler editor Kate Reardon. The post-show-bash was at The Ivy Soho Brasserie and, if we trust the word-of-mouth, one person has it in the Bayswater bag: Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet is the name that keeps coming up. No decisions have yet been made at Vogue House but Massenet’s ears must be burning.
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Model Vogue Williams was said to be dating Made in Chelsea’s Spencer Matthews last week but says it’s all a mix-up. “It’s not true,” she told us at the Maybelline party at The Scotch of St James on Saturday. “We are great friends. He’s a great laugh.” If they were together, she would have been in line to attend Pippa Middleton’s wedding to Matthews’ brother James. “I’ve no interest in going to a royal wedding,” she added. “Do people realise I’m Irish? I’d never live it down back home.”
Harry Potter cleans up
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child won eight gongs at the WhatsOnStage Awards last night, held at the Prince of Wales theatre. Noma Dumezweni, pictured, ran from the Palace Theatre, where she is performing as Hermione, to pick up the prize for best supporting actress in a play. “I’ve never rushed so fast to get out of a theatre,” she said.
Co-star and fellow award winner Anthony Boyle (best supporting actor) joined her but had a mishap with director John Tiffany. “I smashed his award out of his hands,” he said. “It’s in pieces on the floor.” That’s what you get for winning everything.
Tiffany compared Potter to Donald Trump. “It’s such an honour to be doing a story about a group of kids who defeat an evil man,” he said. “A narcissist who wants to make pure bloods great again.”
Downton Abbey’s Julian Fellowes collected best new musical for School of Rock (he wrote the script). “It’s been marvellous,” he said. “It allowed me to connect with the hidden rock ’n’ roller in me, which had been fairly effectively concealed until now.”
When two Beatles met an Eagle
Ringo Starr is still getting by with a little help from his friends. The Beatles drummer was joined in a Sunday-afternoon jam session yesterday by Paul McCartney (right) and Joe Walsh of The Eagles. Hopefully, Chez Ringo the check-out policy isn’t as restrictive as the Hotel California.
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Quote of the day: ‘What happened in Sweden Friday night? Did they catch the Bowling Green Massacre perpetrators?’
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Tweet of the day “Any foreign intel service that doesn’t have an agent as a member or employee of Mar-a-Lago is guilty of rank incompetence.”
Author Max Boot sees a chance for espionage in Trump’s so-called “Southern White House.”
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Stat of the day: Donald Trump has so far spent six out of 30 days of his presidency on a golf course, as noted by NBC’s Bradd Jaffy. Or, put more bluntly: 20 per cent.
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